Best Sugar Cookie Recipe EVER!

What's Christmas without a good sugar rolled out cookie with lots of frosting & sprinkles? I know these are Santa's favorite cookie, because, well, just look at them? It's his face right there!

Growing up, sugar cookies, while fun, were never my favorite. They were either too difficult, too sweet, too hard (I'm not a huge fan of crispy cookies), too messy, too something. But when we were first married, Rocky asked me to make HIS favorite Christmas treat: the Santa Cookies his mom used to make. So, along with trying other Christmas treats (like caramels), I looked for a new sugar cookie recipe and found one while watching "Good Eats." This recipe is, by far, the best sugar cookie recipe I have ever tried. The cookies aren't too sweet, too crispy (as long as you take them out in time) and are always a hit!



3 cups flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter -- I prefer to have the butter at room temp and not softened/melty

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 T milk

Sift dry ingredients together. Put butter in large bowl for your stand mixer and beat until smooth. Add sugar and beat together until light yellow. Add egg and milk and beat to combine/until light and fluffy. Put mixer on low and slowly add the flour mix [and don't let your 3 year old dump the whole thing in before your 8 year old turns the mixer down]. Mix until mixture comes together [patience!]. Divide the dough in half and refrigerate for 2 hours [I usually wrap in wax paper or cling wrap].

Preheat oven to 375. When dough is chilled, roll out to 1/4 inch thick [I do this for my girls, much to Maggie's consternation!]. Cut into desired shapes and place on greased/parchment covered/silicone baking mat covered cookie sheet. Bake 7 to 9 minutes, until edges start to brown, rotating sheet 1/2 way through baking. Let cookies sit on sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and cool before frosting.

The Santa cookies are simply 2 round cookies. One is his face, the second has 2 sides cut to make the hat & mustache. This year, I just used chocolate chips, but I have used red hots for the nose in the past (husband and kids don't like that part. These cookies freeze well. I don't know how long they would last as they never seem to last more than a few days at our house. I will typically mix up 2 batches and keep a 2nd batch for making more cookies later.

Thanksgiving, #joydare

Our first Thanksgiving back in South Dakota. The guest list started small, grew, and then ended up very manageable with LOTS of leftovers.

Maggie and I started the day with a 5k with Tammy & her girls. This was a first for both of us. It was a lot of fun and I think will be a good tradition -- especially if we bring the whole family (including Rusty) next year.

I made my usual apple cider brined turkey (actually made 2), mashed potatoes, smashed sweet potatoes, asparagus, green beans and, of course, gravy. The Moms brought dessert (Jessie enjoyed the Cool Whip). 

48. Extended family

49. Football

50. Turkey

51. The smells of the meal cooking

52. Mashed potatoes

53. Sweet potatoes

54. Bacon, bacon, bacon

55. Walking a 5k with Maggie, Tammy, Alyssa, Amy & Taylor

56. Peppermint Hot Chocolate

57. The feeling of being too full, so content

58. Spending the day surrounded by family, even unexpected family

#1000Gifts List, continuing

It's so interesting to take time to think about what I'm thankful for. I have been trying to take some time each day and am finally carrying my journal so I can update it.

16. A little girl who can get lost in a book.
17. Old friends
18. Feeling like part of a team.
19. Lazy Sunday at home with popcorn & hot chocolate
20. Teaching Maggie to make chocolate chip cookies -- and she did most of it herself!

21. Meeting people from the neighborhood
22. A tower of beer!
23. Bowling
24. Maggie making bacon & eggs for breakfast.
25. Leftovers for lunch.
26. How much Jessie loves her school
27. Getting bacon from the Meat Lab at SDSU
28. A new Muppet Movie
29. Watching Wild Kratts with the girls each morning (and learning something!)
30. Jessie's school picture (so cute)
31. Jessie-ism "I love Cheetos! Cheetos ROCK!" And then she plays air guitar.
32. Spin class - though I haven't yet noticed any bodily changes in how my clothes fit, I am looking forward to class more and more!
33. Jessie as "Star of the Week"
34. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
35. Visiting Mike & Bonnie for the day
36. Pomegranates and mangoes in the Bountiful Basket
37. Watching "Charlie & Lola" and seeing it as the British, cartoon version of my girls in a few years.
38. Jessie freestyle singing, just like Maggie used to. Singing about how strong the Spider-man phone is and how much she loves her family.
39. Listening to Jessie play with her Barbies & make up stories.
40. Automatic washer & dryers
41. Jessie's day care teachers
42. The Boys & Girls Club -- after school care for Maggie.
43. Marvel Movies: no one leaves until all the credits are over.
44. Date Day and THOR 2 The Dark World.
45. Artifical heat -- winter has arrived in SD.
46. Playing Monopoly with Maggie (even if we don't finish the game)
47. Popcord & Elf

30 Days of Thanks

So, it's that time of year again. Suddenly, everyone on Facebook is Thankful. And everyone takes time each day to post about how amazing, super-fantastic their life is. And I get that Facebook can feel like your high school class reunion where we hide the bad thing, the hurt things to make life sound better than it actually is. But you know what, who cares? Counting your blessings makes you happier, more thankful, more content. And I've gotten away from that. I can feel myself falling into old patterns, old discontents. So I think it is time to revisit being thankful, deliberately thankful. Last year, I got to 500 August - December. Starting here, I'm going to see how long it takes me to get to 1000 and then perhaps continue.

To kick start, I'm going to take my days of thanks from Facebook:

1. My girls who continually keep life entertaining!
2. My husband. No specific reason, too many to count.
3. A house starting to feel like home.
4. Antibiotics
5. Great job with a supportive leader.
6. SNOW!
7. Playing in the snow before school/work with Rusty.
8. Spin class
9. Cooking day!
10. Lunch with Maggie (because she took 2 AR quizzes)
11. Rocky's dream job.
12. A fun Halloween
13. Excellent first Parent-Teacher conference for Maggie (our star reader!)
14. Catching up with an old friend/co-worker
15. Sunshine

My Calling: The Walk

Where there is devotional music, God is always at hand with His gracious presence. Johann Sebastian Bach

Each one prays to God according to his own light. Mahatma Gandhi

For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God. Saint Teresa of Avila

The reality is we live in a busy culture where it is hard to simply sit still at the feet of Jesus. Courtney Joseph.

The last (?) post based on the book "Women Living Well," the book I has the pleasure to get a sneak peak of as part of her launch. The book is on sale now at most book stores or online.

This area has been an interesting one for me. For the last few months, I have faltered here. Life has been so crazy, so upside down that I have neglected my walk. As we settle into our new house, I'm hoping to fall into a new routine. Will I be able to continue to rise early and spend a few minutes in prayer? In reading His word? This morning when I woke, I grabbed my iPhone. And when to my Bible app. I love this app -- I can read the Bible in almost any translation I want. I can compare the translations, sometimes the use of a different word helps.

The morning, the verse of the day was from Isaiah 40:28-29:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of hte earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Weary. Oh yes. There is so much to do and just not enough time. Our new home is a mess. Boxes are still everywhere. There are still many to go through and most likely throw or give things away. We do not NEED most of it. 10 boxes of toys. Several boxes and suitcases of clothes. Enough plastic containers to fill a shelf in the pantry. And then, of course, the boxes full of memories that we can't bear to part with, but hold little to no meaning to anyone else -- Rocky & I call these the boxes that are for Maggie & Jessie to throw away after we're gone.

After I dressed this morning and sat down in our new living room, and wished for a cup of coffee [coffee pot did not survive the trip], I started to pray, but soon became overwhelmed with it all. I wanted to just sit. And not think. And not look at what still needed to be done. And I only had a few minutes before I heard Jessie from the bedroom. And then before I know it, the morning rush begins.

I know I need to be deliberate about this. If I'm not, I will get even more out of practice. Just as I need to schedule time to go to the gym [and how amazing is it that I actually look forward to going now], I need to schedule time with God. I guess the good news in all this is that God doesn't move. He is still there, waiting for me to return. Waiting on me.

Women Living Well: A Review; A Giveaway

I do think that despite my best efforts to resist it, I am now a grown-up. It's due to lots of very difficult decisions that you make over a long period of time - about motherhood, wifehood, and work, and all the things that one has to make decisions about. Emma Thompson

 

 

 

The past couple of months have been quite the whirlwind. One of the highlights was getting invited to be a part of the Women Living Well launch team for Courtney Joseph. I've followed Courtney's blog for some time, mostly because I like the .gifs she posts on Facebook. So, when I saw the opportunity to apply to be part of the launch team, I thought it might be cool. I did wonder if she would have anything for me in a book. She is, after all, almost at the other end of the Christian spectrum -- stay at home, homeschooling mom, conservative -- I have to admit there have been times I've been tempted to stop following her because I've disagreed with a stance she has taken, I was tempted to leave the launch group after someone posted a couple of prayer requests I disagreed with. Would she have anything to say that I would find applicable to my life? And was "cool" a good enough reason to apply?

 

As you all know, God works in mysterious ways. And he used that homeschooling, stay at home mom to speak to this public school, day care using, work outside the home mom. Because at our cores, we are not that different. Courtney says in her book "The Biblical principles we apply to our marriages should be the same, but how this is carried out in our homes will look different. There are no cookie-cutter marriages. Your husband is not my husband, but my God is your God, so our principles should match." This is NOT limited to our marriage! Courtney and I worship the same God, so there is so much in her book that applies to me.

 

The book is divided into 4 parts, as indicated by the subtitle: Finding your Joy in God, Your Man, Your Kids and your Home. I have 3 blog posts inspired by My Man, My Kids and My Home. A fourth is coming, but it's been a crazy couple of weeks, so I haven't even had much time WITH God, much less time to write about it. And that's the problem, isn't it? When life gets crazy, as it does, the first thing to go is my time with God. Yet, I have time to watch TV, play with my girls, ignore my family while flipping through Facebook or Pinterest.

 

Courtney opens her book by asking us "Which voice are you listening to?" Am I listening for the Great I Am? I hope I am. About a year ago I started saying Yes to Him. A true yes -- which led us here to South Dakota. I've already said it so many times that He is blessing us with this move. But am I still listening for him? Am I taking the time to look for him? And will I?

 

Courtney's book, all 214 pages, is a challenge to look at your life in a new way. She has something to say to every woman -- not just those who are married or mothers -- but for all those who choose to walk with our King, those who call themselves Christian.

 

This book came into my life at the right time. We start a new chapter this week. A new home. Is this the right time for you?

 

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I was not compensated for this post other than a free advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and posts are my own.